Pink Slug party on Mount Kaputar

When Doctor Simone Heimoana and friends packed a picnic and headed up to Mount Kaputar recently, the weather conditions were sunny and glorious, and the group could never have anticipated the rare neon-pink delight that was waiting for them at the summit.

By the time they made it to Dawsons Spring, the group had seen a hailstorm, and freezing temperatures, and were resigned to the fact that they may not see any wildlife on their trip.

But alas, they persevered with a planned picnic, then onward to the summit where they were shocked to see that conditions were right for another kind of party that was taking place on the wet rockfaces and beneath the canopy of trees.

“My friend Stefan said: “Oh my god, why would someone plaster a piece of salmon to those rocks?” said the Narrabri resident and CSIRO entomologist.

“And Katie and I said, “No, no that’s a pink slug!”

The giant pink slugs of Mt Kaputar were out in full force, ranging from hot pink to pale salmon, and the charismatic collective sure was a sight to see.

The team saw their first pink slug just below the summit platform, then six more on the wet rocks and crawling up the tree trunks.

“All of a sudden, they were everywhere.

“We just kept looking at them, and we thought, looks like somebody left a tongue there, there were tongues everywhere,” said Mrs Heimoana.

“It was uncanny how similar they look to the red gum leaves, and their slime is pink too.”

“And then as soon as the sun decided to shine and it came out and got hot, they all disappeared.

“They all went down, back into the bushes, back under the rocks.”

The high-altitude slugs discovered exclusively in Narrabri over a decade ago, are among many unique species of slugs that were marooned 1500m above sea level on the extinct
volcano.

Once the team made their descent down the mountain, they thought they’d already seen it all, but it was on a rock wall on the right-hand side that they saw a glorious galore of 50 pink slugs.

“There were juveniles and slugs of all sizes,” said Mrs Heimoana.

“We were so happy to see them because we could see they were reproducing and thriving.

“There were little ones, big ones, ones that look as big as chicken fillets.

“I have lived here for 26 years, and in that time, I have seen pink slugs on three occasions. Once when I first moved here in 1998.

“Then 15 years ago at Dawsons Spring on the boardwalk, and they were on the white gum trees.

“And this is the third time, and this is the most I have ever seen.

“So yes, they are there, they are well, and they are reproducing, because there are lots of little ones there as well.

“So, we were very excited, we had rain, hail, sunshine, and pink slugs galore, all in a few hours.”

The group’s Mount Kaputar trek was on November 4 but after the weekend’s welcome rainfall, many of the shire’s residents and visitors have also reported their own pink slug sightings.